If you run an eCommerce business, you should take a look at RITMO to grow your business. Here's what they do.

RITMO is a one-stop platform with all the assets needed to boost the growth of online sellers. It offers flexible funding and actionable insights to fuel the growth of eCommerce and multiplatform sellers.

RITMO's non-dilutive funding helps eCommerce entrepreneurs to invest in growth without risking the cash flow or the equity of the company. Growth Capital allows scale up marketing investment, expand the catalogue, open new sales channels, launch new markets, etc.

If you run an eCommerce business and want to know more about their financial products, take a look here.

Startup funding news 💸

• Madrid-based fintech company MyInvestor raised €20m from Andbank, El Corte Ingles and other investors
• Trackingplan is a new product analytics startup out of Alicante and Barcelona. In this thread they explain a bit more about what they do. The company announced last week that it has been accepted into Y Combinator's new batch. A few months ago, we (K) led a pre-seed round in the company, co-investing with Diego Mariño, Aitor Guevara (both formerly of Ducksboard/New Relic), Albert Armengol (Doctoralia) and Nauta's pre-seed fund. We know the team very well, since we had previously backed two of the company's founders in their previous startup (Hooks)
• According to Accio, Catalan startups raised a combined €1.4b in 2021, 246% YoY growth. Here's another article on the same topic
• Other rounds of funding: Fuel Your Brands, Gurucall, FI Group,

M&A activity 🎊

• La Informacion has a rundown of the participation of Delivery Hero in multiple Glovo funding rounds. In essence, what DH has done is to slowly but surely acquire Glovo through the years. It's also interesting what the article notes towards the end, which is that Glovo's executive team and employees could receive very lucrative packages as part of the transaction, which is very good news for the ecosystem! I bet many of those will become entrepreneurs themselves or even business angels. According to the article, some of the first investors in Glovo, who continue to be on the cap table, could see returns of 100X.
• With the support of DH, Glovo could continue acquiring smaller companies in its key markets in Eastern Europe and Africa
• TechCrunch published a blog post ($) on why Delivery Hero is acquiring a majority stake in Glovo, and paying a 6.4x trailing price/revenue valuation multiple
• Jobandtalent acquired two competitors in France and the UK in 2021
• Madrid-based Satlink, a global leader in the development of technological solutions for the maritime sector, was acquired by PE firm Ergon Capital Partners, Artá Capital and Faustino Velasco

Investor & accelerator news 🚀

• 2021 was a great year for Seaya. The fund saw the SPAC of Wallbox on the Nasdaq and the sale of Glovo. When Wallbox went public, Seaya had a stake of around 10% in the company, which currently has a market cap of $2.2b. Seaya can't sell its Wallbox shares until April 2022. In the case of Glovo, Seaya has seen its equity position in the company diluted over the years, and according to La Informacion, it currently stands at less than 10%. Seaya is among the funds and shareholders that have agreed to sell their shares in Glovo to Delivery Hero
• El Español interviewed Alvaro Villacorta, managing partner of Think Bigger Capital, a VC firm associated with startup incubator Demium. The interview focuses on Alvaro and Demium's role in Malaga, where it has emerged as one of the most funds in the city, with €1.3m invested across 12 companies in 2021
• Startup incubator Decelera to partner with Sancus Capital to launch a €30m fund

Startup news 💡

• Sponsored
• RITMO has closed its first year of activity operating in 5 countries helping hundreds of eCommerce to boost their growth in a professional and scalable way. They are currently growing their team and are looking for the best talent in Spain, France, UK and Mexico. If you want to work in a high-performance company check out their open positions.
• What ecommerce company Tradeinn has achieved is quite remarkable. The company announced that it closed 2021 with €378m, 31% more than in the previous year. 80% of sales come from outside of Spain. I also like the fact that they're doing this from a non-tech hub, Girona
• Ecommerce company Deporvillage to close 2021 with €160m in sales, up 34% compared to 2020. Iberian Sports Retail Group acquired an 80% stake in Deporvillage a few months ago
• Cabify risks losing ground to foreign rivals such as Uber or Bolt in its home base Madrid due to a row over exclusivity with a company which employs 1,100 of its drivers, Auro. Cabify, which is considering going public but has not announced any firm plan to issue shares yet, had global revenues of $516m in 2021, and over 5.4m registered users
• Francesc Julia, managing director of Kave Home, published a summary of what 2021 meant for the company. Kave Home experienced significant sales growth: +60% YoY and x2 vs 2019, reaching €112m in net sales. The company is also hiring for a CMO and CSO (Sustainability)
• Ukio is a Barcelona-based proptech startup that offers a network of design-forward furnished and serviced apartments for monthly stays. Co-founder Stanley Fourteau shared that the company hit a $5m revenue run rate in 2021 and currently has more than 70 employees
• Alejandro Artacho, co-founder and CEO of Spotahome, shared that in 2021 the company almost doubled the business versus 2020 (tripling in H2), hired almost 100 new people, launched several new products and that they got to break even in Q3 for the first time ever
• Miguel Fernandez, co-founder and CEO of fintech Capchase, said that the company has made $1.6b available to startup founders looking to improve their runway and cash situation. Ignacio Guli Moreno, also co-founder of Capchase, was interviewed by Startups' Oasis to talk about the company plans for 2022
• Profile of Fashionalia, a Madrid-based ecommerce startup that combines online and retail sales. The company is co-founded by several former employees of BuyVIP (acquired by Amazon back in the day)
• Profile of car parking marketplace startup Parclick, which closed 2021 with €10.5m in revenues
• According to Ara ($), proptech startup Badi is going through a tough time
• Cinco Dias looked into Fintonic's financials. The company's acquisition of a 52% stake in lending startup Zank hasn't done very well, although Fintonic's main business has improved its bottom line in the past couple of years
• Katoo, a Madrid-based SaaS enabled marketplace connecting restaurants and providers, launched in Colombia. We're investors in Katoo
• Remotely, the future of work company created by the founders of Olapic, continues to "build in public". The company published its December 2021 investor update, as the company is close to hitting $6m in GMV and MRR of $122k. Remotely helps US companies hire and manage remote talent, and gives developers in developing markets the chance to access great job opportunities in the US
• Sifted published a review of the key moments in 2021 of the Spanish tech ecosystem
• Emprendedores published a list of who they consider to be Spain's most relevant 100 entrepreneurs
• Novobrief published a list of the Spanish metarverse rising stars and one more list on 20 tech local leaders to watch in 2022
• Startup profiles:
• Kubbo: urban fulfillment centers
• Hackaboss: tech bootcamps
• Gretel: productivity SaaS
• Openwebinars: edtech
• Exitta: electronics repairment

Big company news 🏦

• Starlink, SpaceX's internet satellite service, is now available in Spain for €99/month
• Mango's online strategy continues to develop with the recent hiring of Ignacio Hoyos as Director of Customer Relations

Interesting reads 🤓

• Alvaro Gutierrez, currently co-CEO of Barkibu and previously at Kiwoko, wrote a post about three things startup founders need to know about M&A
• Antonio Rull (marketgoo) wrote about common questions you'll get in a product management job interview
• Think Big, a Telefonica blog, published a blog post on mental health and entrepreneurship, featuring mental health community Ancla
• Miguel Arias (K Fund) published his tech predicitions for 2022

Podcasts 🎧

• Product Hackers interviewed Núria Coll of Soycomocomo
• Marsbased interviewed Eduardo Manchón (Mailtrack) to talk about technology dependencies and also did a recap of 2021